Delivery-cabinet.



T. A. MATTHEWS.

DELIVERY CABINET.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 6, 1912.

mama Apr. 29, 1913.

T. A. MATTHEWS.

DELIVERY CABINET.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 6. 1912 Paten w Apr. 29, 1913.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

DELIVERY-CABINET.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed July 6, 1912. Serial No. 708,043.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS A. MATTHEWS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Nashville, in the county of Davidson and State of Tennessee,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Delivery- Cabinets,of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to serving apparatus for use in serving paperdrinking cups, envelops, cards, tags and other articles of flat form,andit may be made for separate use or as a component part of stationerycabinets such as shown in my Patents 748,967 and 1,028,091.

The objects of the invention are to provide a simple and eflicientmechanism for discharging the articles singly from the cabinet and atthe same time actuate a follower behind the pack of articles topositively feed the articles to the discharge device; also to soconstruct the feed mechanism that the follower thereof will not beactuated from the delivery mechanism should it at times be forced asufiicient distance toward the delivery end of the cabinet. Theseobjects I accomplish by the mechanism shown in the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a sectional perspective of my improved serving apparatus.Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section through the discharge levermechanism. Fig. 3 is a percpective of another form of feed or followermechanism.

A designates the cabinet having a door, not shown, at its top or it maybe its rear end, a transverse discharge slot A at the forward end of itstop and a vertical lever slot A in itsfront. Within the cabinet at frontand rear thereof are the brackets B, B.

secured by base flanges b to the cabinet bottom and connected bylongitudinal upper and lower side rods B, B and parallel bottomarticle-supporting rods B B 0 is a longitudinal feed screw swiveled inthe bracket bases and provided at its end next to the cabinet front witha ratchet wheel C.

The vertical transverse follower. C has a base a with its ends flangedover the rods B2 B on which it slides, and the follower has secured toits base by a spring 0 a half nut 0 provided with a handle 0 by means ofwhich the nut may be lifted from the screw 0, when the follower is to beslid back to the rear end of the cabinet. The stack of articles will beinserted downwardly in posit-ion in front of the follower with theirsides guided by rods B and their lower ends restlng on rods B out ofcontact with screw C.

Within the front end of the cabinet is an upright guide post D havin asecuring flange d at its lower end and al ateral securing bracket d atits upper end; the former being secured to the bottom of the cabinet andthe latter to the front wall thereof above the slot/A Upon the post D ismounted the discharge mechanism comprising a vertically reciprocatingsleeve or carrier D forced upwardly by a spiral spring d on the post D,and provided with an actuating arm d projecting outwardly through theslot A and terminating in a finger piece d. The sleeve or carrier D isprovided on its rear side with spaced lugs d between which is pivoted avertically rocking discharge lever E having an upwardly extending arm eprovided at its upper end with a transverse pin 6, to the ends of whichand to the ends of a similar arm a! on the upper end of sleeve D areconnected the ends of two contractile springs e exerting a forward pullon the arm e. The rear downwardly curved end of the discharge lever E isprovided with a transverse shaft E, carrying the fixed discharge rolls Ehaving rubber or like friction surfaces. The shaft E also has securedthereto a ratchet wheel (2 with its teeth at its rear engaged by a crosspiece or inturned edge e at the lower end of a pawl e pivoted at itsupper end to the arm e of lever E. It follows, therefore, that when thesleeve or carrierDis depressed by finger piece 0? against the action ofits spring 03 the lever E will be carried down also and as the rollers Ewill then be forced by springs Patented a carers.

e against the forward article to be discharged said rolls will revolveshown by the arrows and run the article without moving it. however, asthe finger piece (Z is released the spring d will quickly raise thesleeve or carrier 'D and the parts carried by it and the, rolls E thepawl e and ratchet wheel a and, owlng to thepull of the springs 6 therolls E will engage the front article with sufficient frictional forceto push it up through the slot A in the top of the cabinet, where itoutwardly as down along As soon,

will now be held stationary byv Depending from the lever E is a rigidpawl or arm F, the lower end of which is.

in th form of a tooth f, which will engage the ratchet wheel C when thepack of articles has diminished sutlicientlyv to allow the springs 6- tothrow the lever E and its rolls far enough to the rear to bring the pawll in vertical alinement with the ratchetwheel C'. 'When this occurs, thedepression of the sleeve D and lever E will cause the pawl F to actuatethe ratchet C and so feed the follower toward the front. \Vhen the packhas been moved far enough forward to cause the pressure on rolls Esutlieient to overcome the action of springs 0 the rolls will cause thepawl F to move forwardly out of the way of the ratchet C. Thus the feedis automatically cut out when ever the pressure on the pack of articlesis suflicient to overcome the force of springs 0 Referring now to Fig.3, it will be seen that in lieu of the feed screw C I have provided apawl and rack feed. In this figure the follower C is mounted removablyon vertical posts 0 projecting up from base 0 mounted as in Fig. l onthe rods 13*, B The follower C is connected removably to the posts 0 bya horizontal flange 0 having apertures receiving said posts and a platespring 0 on the follower below the and bearing frictionally on the posts0 This follower is removable so that the pack of articles may beinserted from the rear instead of from the top. The base 0 has twospring pawls 0 0 which engage, respectively, a stationary longitudinalrack G and a reciprocating rack G parallel with rack G. The pawl 0prevents rearward movement of the follower and the pawl will, when thefeed rack G is moved forwardly, move the follower toward the cabinetfront. The rear end of the feed rack G is secured to a plate spring g",which retracts the said rack and its rearward throw may be regulated bya setscrew 9 The front end of the feed rack G is connected to the upperend of an arm 9 mounted at its lower end on a pivot pin 9 and having itshooked upper end in engagement with a cross piece 9 connecting theparallel arms of a lever Gr pivoted at its lower end on pin 9. The upperend of the lever G has a cross piece 9 in the downward path of the feedpawl F of the discharge lever mechanism shown in Figs. 1 and 2. When thepawl moves down it will move the upper end of lever Gr toward the frontof the cabinet and so cause a for: ward pull on the feed rack G, whichthrough the spring pawl 0" causes a for-. ward movement of the follower.When it is desired to slide the follower C rearwardly both pawls a, 0"may be raised from engagement wit-h the two racks by means of anunderlying spring H having a finger piece h.

The operation of the mechanism will be fully understood from theforegoing and need not be further described.

\Vhat I claim is:

1. The combination in a delivery cabinet, with a vertically slidingcarrier provided with an external operating arm, of a vertically rockinglever pivoted between its ends to the rear side of said carrier, aspring drawing the upper end of the lever toward the carrier, a shaftmounted on the lever,

a pair of friction rolls fixedly mounted on the shaft, a ratchet betweenthe rolls, and a pawl mounted on the lever with its lower end engagingsaid ratchet and permitting the rolls and shaft to turn in the downwardmovement of the carrier and lever and holding them stationary to lift anarticle in the return movement.

2. The combination in a delivery cabinet, with a vertical post, and aspiral expansion spring thereon, of a vertically movable carrier sleevemounted on the post and having an external operating arm, a verticallyrocking lever pivoted to the rear of the carrier sleeve and provldedwith an upwardly extending arm, a contractile spring connecting said armwith the upper end of the sleeve, a shaft mounted on said lever, apairof friction rolls secured to the shaft, a ratchet wheel on the shaftbetween the rolls, and a pawl pivoted to the lever with its lower endengaging the ratchet to permit the rolls to run idly in the downwardmovement of the carrier sleeve and lever and hold the shaft and rollsfrom rotation in the upward movement.

3. The combination in a delivery cabinet, with a vertically slidingcarrier having an external operating arm, a vertically rocking leverpivoted thereon and having a downwardly extending arm, a spring throwingthe lower end of the lever rearwardly, a shaft mounted on the lever andprovided with a friction roll and a ratchet wheel, a pawl mounted on thelever with its lower end engaging the ratchet to permit the roll to turnfreely in the downward movement but look the roll in the upwardmovement, of a feed mechanism to move the pack toward said frictionroll, and an actuating device for the feed mechanism in the path of thedescending lever arm.

4. The combination in a delivery cabinet, with a vertically slidingcarrier havin an external operating arm, a lever pivoted to swingvertically on the rear side of the carrier and having a depending pawlarm, a-

spring forcing the upper end of the lever forwardly, a shaft mountedbetween the ends of the lever and having a friction roll and a ratchetwheel, and a pawl mounted on ing from the lever and engaging the saidthe lever and engaging the ratchet to allow the roll to rotate in thedownward movement of the carrier and hold it against rotation in theupwardmovement, of a feed mechanism for the pack comprising a follower,a feed screw therefor, and a ratchet wheel on the front end of the screwin the downward path of the pawl arm of the lever.

5. A delivery or serving cabinet comp-rising, a casing having adischarge slot in the front of its top, a vertical post mounted in thefront end of the cabinet, a carrier sleeve mounted to slide on the postand having an external operating arm, a spring on the post supportingsaid carrier sleeve, a lever mounted between the ends on the rear of thecarrier sleeve, a contractile spring connecting the upper end of thelever with the sleeve, a shaft mounted between the ends of the lever,friction rolls on the shaft ends,

a ratchet wheel on the shaft, a pawl depend- Ell ratchet to lock therolls against rotation in the upward movement of the carrier sleeve, afollower to feed the pack toward the rolls, a feed screw to operate thefollower, means for disconnecting the follower and screw, a ratchetwheel on the front end of the feed screw in the path of the lowerpawl-like end of said lever.

6. A delivery or serving cabinet comprising, a casing having a dischargeslot in the front of its top, a vertically operating discharge mechanismin the front of the cabinet and having an extending operating arm, afollower pressing the pack toward the dischar e mechanism, a feed deviceto move the ollower toward the discharge mechanism, means for actuatingthe feed device fromthe discharge mechanism in its downward movement,guide rods sup orting' the lower end of the ack, and si e rods for thesides of the pac In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presenceof two witnesses.

THOMAS A. MATTHEWS.

Witnesses B. G. REGEN, W. M. VAUGHN.

